Joseph M. Miano, Ph.D.

Contact Information

Professional Bio

Dr. Joseph M. Miano received his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from New York Medical College in 1992. His post-doctoral training was done in Eric Olson's laboratory at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center where he cloned and characterized several smooth muscle-restricted promoters and initiated the study of retinoids in the vessel wall. Prior to his appointment at the U of R, Dr. Miano was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin where his genomics interests were developed and cultivated through collaborative work with Howard Jacob's lab. Dr. Miano served as an editorial board member for several journals and was Associate Editor of ATVB and a Consulting Editor for Circulation Research. He is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and a member of the Vascular Cell and Molecular Biology Study Section at NIH.

Patient Care Bio

Dr. Miano grew up in Chili, a suburb of Rochester, NY, and graduated from Gates-Chili High School. His PhD research was done at New York Medical College where he identified genes that could be turned on immediately after experimental angioplasty. His post-doctoral training was done in a world-class lab at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas where he continued his studies related to the control of turning genes on and off. Miano states that, "DNA is a quaternary code and the most sophisticated code known to human kind. Most common diseases occur because of the inappropriate turning on and off of genes, which relate to defective codes in our genome or altered signaling that converges on the quaternary code to turn on/off genes. My research in the Aab CVRI aims to decipher the codes that dictate how genes involved in cardiovascular disease are either turned up or down. Much like a thermostat controlling the heat in your home, cells normally have exquisite control over the level of gene activity. Diseases of the heart and blood vessels occur when this 'geneostat' control runs awry. Thus, identifying and understanding how certain codes control genes turning on and off is a foundation for developing novel methods of predicting and perhaps treating various diseases of the body. To date, Dr. Miano has published over 70 research papers and is a Consulting Member of a University start-up company called Socratech, whose charge is to develop novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.